McCain and Obama clash in debate

Last Modified: 08 Oct 2008
By: Channel 4 News

Watch extended extracts from the second presidential TV debate.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused his Republican rival, John McCain, of supporting the policies that led to the "worst financial crisis since the great depression" in a crucial national debate televised yesterday.

As McCain fought declining poll ratings, the candidates clashed over Iraq, energy and the economy.

'We don't have time for on-the-job training my friend.'
John McCain

McCain proposed an extension of the £700bn financial bailout plan passed by Congress last week, saying he would direct the Treasury to buy up bad mortgages and refinance them with new loans in order to help people stay in their homes.

Obama called for more help and tax cuts for the middle class, and accused McCain of wanting to help CEOs at the expense of ordinary people.

McCain painted Obama as a stealthy tax-raiser, saying that nailing down the Democrat's tax proposals was like "nailing Jell-O to the wall".

McCain said: "There has been five or six of them and if you wait long enough, there will probably be another one. But he wants to raise taxes."

The town-hall style debate, four weeks before the election day, was moderated by veteran TV journalist Tom Brokaw, who posed questions submitted members of the public.

The candidates greeted each other with a handshake, and walked around the stage while speaking at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

McCain attacked Obama's judgement on Iraq and Russia, and accused him of inexperience in national security.

"Senator Obama was wrong about Iraq and the surge, he was wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against Georgia and in his short career he does not understand our national security challenges," he said. "We don't have time for on-the-job training my friend."

Obama, who unlike McCain, opposed the invasion of Iraq, hit back by accusing McCain of making a "wrong" and costly" judgement in "cheerleading the president to go in to Iraq".

"It's true there are some things I don't understand," Obama said.

"I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 while Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us."

The build-up to the debate has seen campaigning turn increasingly nasty. At the weekend, Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin accusing Obama of "palling around with terrorists".